DIVISION TWO Business House domino champions Jamaica Fire Brigade capped a marvellous season on Friday night when they defeated Division One champions The Gleaner 58-54 in the champion-of-champions round robin final at the JPS Sports Club, Ruthven Road.

In the night's first match, The Gleaner, the defending champions, clipped KO champions Campari 34-33, while Fire Brigade also beat them by one point (36-35) in a disputed match.

The dispute, which occurred when the 30-minute duration of the match ran out and the scores appeared not to tally, was quashed with the intervention of match officials from the National Association of Domino Bodies, organisers of the tournament. They ruled that the match be awarded to Jamaica Fire Brigade.

In the final play-off, The Gleaner quickly found their rhythm to lead by seven points in the early stages, but the firemen fought back strongly to tie the score at 13-13, then led 15-13, 23-16 and 34-22.

Never looked back

They never looked back and although The Gleaner rallied to get within two points (54-52) of them in the dying stages, Fire Brigade found extra to win by four points at the end of the 45-minute match.

Captained by Otis Rowe, the firemen are unbeaten in the league this season, having drubbed NWC in the Division Two final on July 21. On Friday night, all their players (Michael Fuller and Clinford Elvin, Oneil Blake/Floyd Richards, Sean Ashley/Andrew Stephens and Everton Doyley/Francisco Bennett) contributed evenly to the victory. Ronald Berry and Domion Shorter were the top pair for The Gleaner.

Meanwhile, Portland defeated Kingston & St. Andrew 87-71 to win the ladies' final at the same venue. The winning team was captained by Rosetta Roofe.

In a brief address, the president of the National Association of Domino Bodies, Ray Smith, disclosed that the World Championship of Dominoes will be held in Jamaica, beginning October 19.

- O.C.